Even before Emmylou Harris had a run of 10 Top-10 country albums from the mid-1970s to the mid-’80s, she says she knew she wanted to record with country singer Rodney Crowell.

Crowell won a Grammy Award in 1990 (Harris had won a dozen of her own) and Harris has recently had a resurgence, with her last four solo albums in the Top 10 again. Her 2011 disc “Hard Bargain” peaked at No. 3, her highest-charting disc since 1980.

But it wasn’t until February that Harris and Crowell finally did that collaboration. Turns out Harris was right: “Old Yellow Moon” hit No. 4 on the country charts.

Bonus: Opening the show will be songwriter/guitarist extraordinaire Richard Thompson with his Electric Trio.

In a music world where artists struggle to sell records, Christian Southern rock band Third Day scored its fourth straight Top 10 album with the November release of “Miracle.” Not only that, but its popularity also seems to be growing, with those albums the highest-charting of its 17-year career.

Third Day

It could be that the band’s message is simply spreading since it long ago conquered the Christian market. “Miracle” is its fifth straight disc to top the Christian chart.

Or it could be the Christian market is growing. Recent “American Idol” contestant Colton Dixon’s debut album, “A Messenger,” released Jan. 29, topped the Christian chart — the highest solo new artist debut on the Christian music chart in the history of Soundscan, and hit No. 15 on the overall chart.

The song came out of nowhere (Loeb didn’t even have a record contract) by being on the soundtrack to the movie “Reality Bites.” That track gave Loeb not only a gold album in 1995’s “Tails,” but also a career that now has lasted almost 20 years.

But it also has trapped her. She hasn’t had a charting album in more than a decade or a single in nearly 15 years. And even though she put out a new album, “No Fairy Tale,” her first in eight years, on Jan. 29, here we are still talking about “Stay (I Missed You).”

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.